Wednesday, December 2, 2009

SA Sym: Toys

The San Antonio Symphony will host a toy drive to benefit the San Antonio Police Department Blue Santa Program during the Holiday Pops weekend (December 18-20, 2009). Patrons attending either the Holiday Pops concert at Municipal Auditorium on December 18 & 19 or the Family Holiday Celebration at Trinity University on December 20 are asked to donate a new, unwrapped toy to the Blue Santa Toy Drive. For each toy donated, the patron will receive a ticket voucher for future Pops or Family Series concerts.

The Toy Drive will begin at the Symphony’s Holiday Pops concerts at Municipal Auditorium on Friday and Saturday December 18 & 19, 2009 and will conclude at the Holiday Family Series concert on Sunday December 20, 2009 at Trinity University’s Laurie Auditorium. In addition to the concert, patrons may enjoy interactive activities beginning one hour prior to each performance including instrument making workshops, an instrument “petting zoo,” and a free family photo session with photographer Greg Harrison.

“The Symphony looks forward to this fun and charitable event,” says President and CEO Jack Fishman, “connecting our Holiday Concerts and the Police Department’s Blue Santa toy drive is a natural. We hope we can make it easy for our audiences to donate lots of toys to this wonderful cause.”

According to the SAPD, the Blue Santa Program “provides an excellent opportunity for our officers to show they care about the community in which they serve.” After the unwrapped toys are collected the SAPD will distribute the toys to needy families in the community.

This is only one of many donation drives the San Antonio Symphony will host this season. Already the Symphony raised a record 200 packages of diapers (approximately 7,500 individual diapers) to benefit the Children’s Shelter. The Symphony will sponsor many more charitable events throughout the season.

Blue Santa began with the San Antonio Police Department back in 1976 when officers began proving assistance to the underprivileged of San Antonio. SAPD Officers would identify families in need during their routine calls. The San Antonio Police Officers began accepting Blue Santa applications from November 1, 2009 through midnight on December 1, 2009. Each of the six Police substations will be accepting the applications. Last year the Blue Santa program was able to help approximately 3800 families and 11,518 children.

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